Philosophers, ABE-BHā
Here you'll find the thinkers and theorists who have expressed their own ideas about such topics as the nature of humankind's relationship with the metaphysical world, the definitions of truth and knowledge, and the conditions of existence. From ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle to later notable philosophers such as René Descartes and Immanuel Kant, philosophy's great thinkers have approached sensitive ethical and existential issues from a variety of different angles. Their ideas have influenced the way we look at our world and the way we relate to one another as human beings.
Philosophers Encyclopedia Articles By Title
Peter Abelard was a French theologian and philosopher best known for his solution of the problem of universals......
Abhinavagupta was a philosopher, ascetic, and aesthetician, as well as an outstanding representative of the “recognition”......
Abraham bar Hiyya was a Spanish Jewish philosopher, astronomer, astrologer, and mathematician whose writings were......
Alessandro Achillini was an Italian philosopher and physician, an advocate of the teachings of William of Ockham.......
Uriel Acosta was a freethinking rationalist who became an example among Jews of one martyred by the intolerance......
John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, 1st Baron Acton was an English Liberal historian and moralist, the first great......
Adelard Of Bath was an English Scholastic philosopher and early interpreter of Arabic scientific knowledge. Adelard......
Felix Adler was an American educator and founder of the Ethical Movement. (Read Peter Singer’s Britannica entry......
Mortimer J. Adler was an American philosopher, educator, editor, and advocate of adult and general education by......
Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno was a German philosopher who also wrote on sociology, psychology, and musicology. Adorno......
Aedesius was a Greek philosopher whose ideas had their roots in Neoplatonism, a school of philosophy that grew......
Aenesidemus was a philosopher and dialectician of the Greek Academy who revived the Pyrrhonian principle of “suspended......
Maria Gaetana Agnesi was an Italian mathematician and philosopher, considered to be the first woman in the Western......
Rodolphus Agricola was a Dutch humanist who, basing his philosophy on Renaissance ideas, placed special emphasis......
Agrippa was an ancient Greek philosophical skeptic. He is famous for his formulation of the five tropes, or grounds......
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim was a court secretary to Charles V, physician to Louise of Savoy, exasperating......
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz was a Polish logician and semanticist who was the chief contributor to the Warsaw school......
Alain was a French philosopher whose work profoundly influenced several generations of readers. Graduating in philosophy,......
Isaac Albalag was a Jewish philosopher who rendered a Hebrew translation of parts of the Maqāṣid al-falāsifah (“Aims......
Albert Of Saxony was a German scholastic philosopher especially noted for his investigations into physics. He studied......
St. Albertus Magnus ; canonized December 16, 1931; feast day November 15) was a Dominican bishop and philosopher......
Albinus was a Greek philosopher, a pupil of Gaius and a teacher of Galen, and a forerunner of Neoplatonism. Albinus......
Joseph Albo was a Jewish philosopher and theologian from Spain who is noted for his classic work of Jewish dogmatics,......
Alcidamas was a prominent Sophist and rhetorician who taught in Athens. He was a pupil of Gorgias and a rival of......
Alcmaeon was a Greek philosopher and physiologist of the academy at Croton (now Crotone, southern Italy). He was......
Bronson Alcott was an American philosopher, teacher, reformer, and member of the New England Transcendentalist......
Jean Le Rond d’Alembert was a French mathematician, philosopher, and writer, who achieved fame as a mathematician......
Alexander Of Aphrodisias was a philosopher who is remembered for his commentaries on Aristotle’s works and for......
Alexander Of Hales was a theologian and philosopher whose doctrines influenced the teachings of such thinkers as......
Samuel Alexander was a philosopher who developed a metaphysics of emergent evolution involving time, space, matter,......
Salvador Allende was Chile’s first socialist president. Allende, born into an upper-middle-class family, received......
Louis Althusser was a French philosopher who attained international renown in the 1960s for his attempt to fuse......
Ammonius Hermiae was a Greek philosopher whose thinking was primarily oriented toward logic and the sciences. He......
Jacob Anatoli was a Jewish philosopher, preacher, and physician. Anatoli was especially interested in the works......
Anaxagoras was a Greek philosopher of nature remembered for his cosmology and for his discovery of the true cause......
Anaximander was a Greek philosopher who was the first to develop a cosmology, or systematic philosophical view......
Anaximenes Of Miletus was a Greek philosopher of nature and one of three thinkers of Miletus traditionally considered......
Andronicus Of Rhodes was a Greek philosopher noted for his meticulous editing and commentary of Aristotle’s works,......
Andō Shōeki was a Japanese philosopher considered to be one of the forerunners of the 19th-century movement to......
Anniceris was a Greek philosopher who was drawn to the ideas of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy, founded by Aristippus,......
St. Anselm of Canterbury ; feast day April 21) was an Italian-born theologian and philosopher, known as the father......
Anselm Of Laon was a theologian who became eminent in early Scholasticism. Anselm apparently studied at Bec, Fr.,......
Antiochus Of Ascalon was a Greek philosopher who followed Philo of Larissa as the head of the Academy, charting......
Antisthenes was a Greek philosopher, of Athens, who was a disciple of Socrates and is considered the founder of......
Kwame Anthony Appiah is a British-born American philosopher, novelist, and scholar of African and African American......
Lucius Apuleius was a Platonic philosopher, rhetorician, and author remembered for The Golden Ass, a prose narrative......
St. Thomas Aquinas ; canonized July 18, 1323; feast day January 28, formerly March 7) was an Italian Dominican......
Arcesilaus was a philosopher who succeeded Crates as head of the Greek Academy; he introduced a skepticism derived......
Archytas of Tarentum was a Greek scientist, philosopher, and major Pythagorean mathematician. Plato, a close friend,......
Hannah Arendt was a German-born American political scientist and philosopher known for her critical writing on......
Aristippus was a philosopher who was one of Socrates’ disciples and the founder of the Cyrenaic school of hedonism,......
Aristobulus Of Paneas was a Jewish Hellenistic philosopher who, like his successor, Philo, attempted to fuse ideas......
Ariston Of Chios was a Greek philosopher who studied under Zeno, the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy;......
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist, one of the greatest intellectual figures of Classical......
Aristoxenus was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher, the first authority for musical theory in the classical world.......
Asclepigenia was a Greek philosopher of the Neo-Platonist school, teacher, and lecturer. After the death of her......
Ashvaghosha was a philosopher and poet who is considered India’s greatest poet before Kalidasa (5th century) and......
Athenagoras was a Greek Christian philosopher and Apologist whose Presbeia peri Christianōn (c. 177; Embassy for......
Athenodorus Cananites was a Greek Stoic philosopher who was the teacher of the younger Octavian, who later became......
St. Augustine ; feast day August 28) was the bishop of Hippo from 396 to 430, one of the Latin Fathers of the Church......
Sri Aurobindo was a yogi, seer, philosopher, poet, and Indian nationalist who propounded a philosophy of divine......
J.L. Austin was a British philosopher best known for his individualistic analysis of human thought derived from......
Avempace was the earliest known representative in Spain of the Arabic Aristotelian–Neoplatonic philosophical tradition......
Richard Avenarius was a German philosopher who taught at Zürich and founded the epistemological theory of knowledge......
Averroës was an influential Islamic religious philosopher who integrated Islamic traditions with ancient Greek......
Avicenna was a Muslim physician, the most famous and influential of the philosopher-scientists of the medieval......
A.J. Ayer was a British philosopher and educator and a leading representative of logical positivism through his......
Pierre-Hyacinthe Azaïs was a philosopher whose optimism was rooted in the idea that human experience is imbued......
Francis Bacon was the lord chancellor of England (1618–21). A lawyer, statesman, philosopher, and master of the......
Roger Bacon was an English Franciscan philosopher and educational reformer who was a major medieval proponent of......
John Baconthorpe was an English theologian and philosopher who, although he did not subscribe to the heterodox......
Bahya ben Joseph ibn Pakuda was a judge of a rabbinical court in Muslim Spain and author of a highly influential......
Samuel Bailey was an English economist and philosopher remembered for his argument that value is a relationship......
Alexander Bain was a Scottish philosopher who advanced the study of psychology with his work on mental processes......
James Mark Baldwin was a philosopher and theoretical psychologist who exerted influence on American psychology......
Pierre-Simon Ballanche was a religious and social philosopher who influenced the Romantic writers and played an......
Jaime Luciano Balmes was an ecclesiastic, political writer, and philosopher whose liberal ideas were strongly opposed......
Bar Hebraeus was a medieval Syrian scholar noted for his encyclopaedic learning in science and philosophy and for......
Paul Barth was a German philosopher and sociologist who considered society as an organization in which progress......
Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire was a French politician, journalist, and scholar. Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire worked......
Jean Baudrillard was a French sociologist and cultural theorist whose theoretical ideas of “hyperreality” and “simulacrum”......
Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten was a German philosopher and educator who coined the term aesthetics and established......
Ferdinand Christian Baur was a German theologian and scholar who initiated the Protestant Tübingen school of biblical......
Andrew Baxter was a Scottish metaphysical rationalist who maintained the essential distinction between matter and......
Pierre Bayle was a philosopher whose Dictionnaire historique et critique (1697; “Historical and Critical Dictionary”)......
James Beattie was a Scottish poet and essayist, whose once-popular poem The Minstrel was one of the earliest works......
Simone de Beauvoir was a French writer and feminist, a member of the intellectual fellowship of philosopher-writers......
August Immanuel Bekker was a German philologist and classical scholar who prepared a great array of critical editions......
Julien Benda was a novelist and philosopher, leader of the anti-Romantic movement in French criticism, persistent......
Friedrich Eduard Beneke was a German philosopher and psychologist who argued that inductive psychology was the......
Walter Benjamin was a man of letters and aesthetician, now considered to have been the most important German literary......
Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher, economist, and theoretical jurist, the earliest and chief expounder......
Nikolay Aleksandrovich Berdyayev was a religious thinker, philosopher, and Marxist who became a critic of Russian......
Henri Bergson was a French philosopher, the first to elaborate what came to be called a process philosophy, which......
George Berkeley was an Anglo-Irish Anglican bishop, philosopher, and scientist best known for his empiricist and......
Bernard de Chartres was a humanist and philosopher, head of the celebrated school of Chartres, in France. His attempt......
Henri Berr was a French historian and philosopher who founded a series of Parisian institutes and journals dedicated......
Bessarion was a Byzantine humanist and theologian, later a Roman cardinal, and a major contributor to the revival......
Bhartrihari was a Hindu philosopher and poet-grammarian, author of the Vakyapadiya (“Words in a Sentence”), on......
Bhāvaviveka was an Indian Buddhist philosopher who was an interpreter of Nāgārjuna, the founder of Mādhyamika school......